Daily wall climbing?

[liamandnorma]

Hi all,

I just need a bit of reassurance. Most evenings, usually after feeding, Norma has a bit of a barny and scrambles all over one side of the tank trying to climb it. People seem to say that perhaps the tank isn't interesting enough for them if they do this, but it she always does it in the same place where she can see out to the rest of my room.

I dunno, it starts making me question how cruel it might be to keep a Leopard Gecko, if they just want to escape all the time. Sometimes when she does this I'll let her crawl on my hand and wander about somewhere else for a few minutes, the bed or carpet or whatever. When she is back in her tank she seems more calm, and doesn't try to do it anymore.

Can some people tell me their experience of this kind of thing?

Thanks

Liam

 

[Russellm0704]

How big is the enclosure? Are the temperatures too hot? Too cold?

 

[liamandnorma]

The enclosure is what equates to a 10 gallon I think, its an Exo Terra Large Flat Faunarium.

The temperature on the hot side seems ok at about 30-36 degrees celsius. The cold side doesn't seem to go above 24. Could this be the problem? She goes over there to poo and her water dish is over there but she doesn't spend much time there. I made a carpet base to put between the shelf and the bottom of the tank to try and help

 

[gecko4245]

The enclosure is what equates to a 10 gallon I think, its an Exo Terra Large Flat Faunarium.

The temperature on the hot side seems ok at about 30-36 degrees celsius. The cold side doesn't seem to go above 24. Could this be the problem? She goes over there to poo and her water dish is over there but she doesn't spend much time there. I made a carpet base to put between the shelf and the bottom of the tank to try and help

Isn't that like a cricket keeper? That's not going to make your leo happy. Buy her something much bigger and she will stop trying to escape.

 

[liamandnorma]

From what I read a 10 gallon tank should be enough for 1 adult leopard gecko, that seems to be quoted all over the place. I'm going to get a bigger one soon though from local ads, they pop up every week or so, shouldn't be long.

As for the temperature how do people keep the colder side a little warmer?

 

[gecko4245]

24celcius is fine for the cool side. Nothing lower than that tho. Best way to keep temps stable is to keep your room temp at a certain temp if not you have to use a lamp with the heat mat.

 

[grboxa]

I have 2 geckos, a male and a female. My female never does this, but my male will do this sometimes when hes really hungry until I feed him. It may be because of the size of your tank, my female would have no problem being in that tank, but if you put my male jungle in there...hed try every way to escape. Some geckos are more curious and adventurous and just want to see 'more'(always see him exploring) like my jungle which is why I purchased a 50 gal for him. Try purchasing a bigger a tank, I dont doubt it could be because of the limited space if you canceled out all other possibilities like the enclosure being to hot for example ...some just want 'more'.

 

[wgparks]

i would get an actual tank for your gecko, the tank you have seems more for traveling/temporary/quarantine and to me 10g shouldn't be the standard tank size, i wouldn't go smaller than 20g long personally, but that's just me. just try getting a larger cage and see if this helps with the problem

 

[Dimidiata]

Rango did this until he was given a 20gal. He hasnt done it since.

 

[liamandnorma]

Cool thanks guys. I'm working on it, hopefully have a bigger tank within the next week or two. Since I posted this I've noticed a couple of things as well like about putting some extra's in, moving rocks around etc, she keeps herself busy exploring the changes and stuff. Also removing her to walk around a load of washing or similar seems to really help. She's obviously an explorer! New tank soon

Cheers

 

[Dimidiata]

Oh yes, moving stuff around normaly kept rango entertained,or switching things out.

 

[roger]

Hi all,

I just need a bit of reassurance. Most evenings, usually after feeding, Norma has a bit of a barny and scrambles all over one side of the tank trying to climb it. People seem to say that perhaps the tank isn't interesting enough for them if they do this, but it she always does it in the same place where she can see out to the rest of my room.

I dunno, it starts making me question how cruel it might be to keep a Leopard Gecko, if they just want to escape all the time. Sometimes when she does this I'll let her crawl on my hand and wander about somewhere else for a few minutes, the bed or carpet or whatever. When she is back in her tank she seems more calm, and doesn't try to do it anymore.

Can some people tell me their experience of this kind of thing?

Thanks

Liam

For some un known reason all my leos that I have kept in the past 25 yrs have done this.

 

[Macularius613]

Mine does this all the time. I have her 10 gallon tank right next to where I sit at my desk, and I'll just look over and have her staring right at me like she's trying to crawl through the mysterious invisible wall that separates us.

 

[PaladinGirl]

All my leos do that for a day or 2 after I clean their tanks. Toon does it every so often just randomly but usually calms down after I hold her for awhile and let her wander around.

 

[Rurso01]

ours does this at random times but it goes on for over an hour at a time though. we have a 20 long and have 3 hides + humid hide. granted, we could have more entertainment type stuff in there but we dont want to crowd her from walking on the ground. we covered the outside walls of the tank to prevent her from either seeing atleast most of her reflection, or from the chance that she would feel unsafe. I guess theres nothing negative about her trying to climb huh?